I Can't Feel My Face!
by THeartsQT
Summary: Karmi is experimenting with a new anaesthetic when things go awry. Luckily, Hiro has an unconventional idea that might just save her... Oneshot featuring Karmiro.


She can't feel her face.

She reaches up gingerly and brushes it with her fingertips. Nothing. She pokes it. Still nothing. Perhaps it is her fingers that are numb and her face that is fine.

Someone barges through the door, but Karmi does not turn to look. It is like she is frozen.

"Hey Karmi, guess what. Wendy Wower's giving a legit presentation on her robotics findings this Thursday after school. Do you want to go?" Hiro strides in, oblivious to her current situation.

She slowly lowers her fingers, expression unchanging. She does not want to change it, for if she does she will not feel it.

"Karmi?" He pulls up a rolling chair right next to her, purses his lips and examines her face. She is still staring at the wall behind her workstation. "You ok?"

She gestures subtly with her hand, shaking it to say no. Slowly, she brings herself to close her eyes, then open them. It is as weird as she thought it would be. She massages her cheeks lightly, then exercises her jaw.

Then she makes herself talk. "Hiro, I was working with anaesthetics for patients with a virus-infected bloodstream, when this happened." She points to her face. "I can't feel it."

Hiro's eyes widen in concern. Karmi continues. "I tried to brush a loose strand of hair away, with my contaminated gloved hands. That is something you should never do." Her voice carries little emotion, yet Hiro knows her despair.

She wonders how long it will take to wear off. She knows it isn't life-threatening, although it is extraordinarily strong- she had been working on mixing the raw drug before diluting it to the appropriate degree.

It is not life-threatening, in _theory_. In practice, many drugs work very differently than expected. Perhaps this is one of those. For better, or for worse.

Hiro understands the gravity of the situation, but he also knows that Karmi is the only one who fully knows the nature of the anaesthetic she created. Calling Granville or any other biotech major would be useless. A trip to the sick bay is an almost laughable solution.

Although of course, Karmi would not be laughing in her current state.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

Karmi shakes her hand, passing up the offer.

"Can you move?"

Karmi bites her lip for a moment. "Yes. But I hate it. I feel like I've just emerged from a Botox treatment." Hiro smirks. "I feel like someone injected rubber into my face. I feel like a mannequin." He grimaced, imagining it.

Rather than asking her the best way to lessen an anaesthetic, he decides to look it up on the internet. Karmi eyes his screen but does not comment. _Local anaesthetic may contain adrenaline, _he reads, _which makes the surrounding blood vessels smaller. The area may have a pale appearance. As the anaesthetic wears off, normal skin colour will return. _

"Does your anaesthetic contain the hormone adrenaline?" She nods slightly.

Hiro furrows his brow for a moment, thinking. Then he grows a small smile. If she could talk, Karmi would say, "Why are you looking at me like that…"

"As the local anaesthetic wears off, you may find that you have a tingling or burning sensation," he tells Karmi, quoting from the website.

In one swift movement, Hiro gets up from his seat and kisses Karmi lightly on the cheek.

Still she does not move, and Hiro knows she did not feel a thing. But a blush spreads slowly on her face as Hiro sits back down, watching her with an anticipating smile.

She touches the place where he kissed her, and grins. Laughs, even. Because she can feel it now. She can feel her whole face, and she can feel the lingering brush with his chapped lips on her skin. She is tingling.

"Hiro!" She squeezes him momentarily. "I guess I don't call you _Genius Boy_ for nothing." She talks fast. "You enlarged my blood vessels by forcing my blood pressure to increase, reducing the effects of the anaesthetic. I don't think even I would have thought of that…"

Karmi gazes at the boy in the roller chair in front of her. "Thanks, Hiro." A moment passes.

"But that one doesn't count, since I didn't really feel it. Could you maybe kiss me again?"

* * *

**Author's Note**

A short oneshot by me (when I was _supposed_ to be working on Chapter 3 of my other story Issue 189, but this idea just hit me and I felt an inexplicable urge to start and finish writing it there and then). Source for all that medical info: . . Please note that I have intentionally misinterpreted the information provided in the source, for the purpose of the story.

And of course Big Hero 6 is owned by Disney, not me.

Also, check out my other story (which is complete): Privacy Breach, where Karmi finds out that Hiro is actually Captain Cutie! If you want to leave a review for this oneshot, please do! All feedback is welcome.


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